Citation analysis - Rod Benson

Searching for cited references is an alternative to keyword searching. Instead of selecting relevant keywords, you begin with the author and title of the cited reference. Citation searching enables you to find relevant research in two ways:

• backward citation searching: identifying references within a selected article; and

• forward citation searching: identifying other articles and books that cite the selected article.

Citation analysis is a great way to locate more research on a topic of interest, or to find more recent material on a given topic. It may deliver relevant articles from unexpected disciplines, or identify alternative search terms that you can employ to find more information. You can use citation analysis to track research articles and ideas through time, and to measure an article’s quality and impact, such as by measuring the number of times other authors mention it in their published work.

Such analysis may be powerful, but it also has limitations. For example, there is no single citation analysis tool that collects all possible published research and their cited references, and authors may cite their sources in ways that are not apparent to search software.

Some databases presume that researchers are working in fields related to science or medicine. Those listed in this guide provide value for researchers working in the arts and humanities, especially in biblical and theological studies. Citation analysis is one of several search tools, and should be used along with keyword searching for best results.

2. How to do a citation reference search

Choose an article or book that has been in publication for one or two years. Locate a database that includes a citation index, and enter the author and/or title details. Some database tools allow you to drag and drop the entire document into a search box for analysis.

The results should provide a list of items cited by the selected document, a list of items that cite the selected document, or a list of relevant articles and books based on names, titles and keywords in the selected document.

Depending on your topic, you may need to search several databases. If an author is more likely to be cited in books rather than articles, or in non-English publications, or in journals not indexed by the database, the results may be limited.

Some databases (e.g., Google Scholar and Web of Science) allow registered users to create a citation alert that notifies them when a new “citing article” is released citing a specific book or article.

3. Databases offering citation reference searching

This is a very brief guide. Databases offer a range of research tools for citation analysis. Some are designed for authors to track citations to their articles, while others provide lists of citations or links to articles for researchers. You may need to explore the options each database offers.

Databases use various names for citation tool, such as “citation tracking,” “Find citing articles,” or “references.” Some databases contain abstracts only, but index all cited references contained in the articles. Databases may require password access or institutional login, and Moore College does not support all of these.

To do a backward citation analysis in any full-text database, select a book or article and search its references and bibliography.

You can also search for book chapters. For example, in Google Scholar, search by the chapter title and check for the “Cited by” link. In Google Books, you may do the same but be careful to confirm the validity of citations.

If you found your source article through a database search, return to the database and see if there is a tool for citation tracking. Otherwise, use one of the following databases. Ask a librarian for help if you need assistance.

Arts and Humanities Citation Index

Contains over 1,800 journals across 28 arts and humanities disciplines. Subjects include classical works, history and religion. Click here to access.

DataCite

Provides persistent identifiers (DOIs) for research data and supports data citation and usage analytics. Use the delimiters on the left side of screen to narrow your search. Click here to access.

EBSCOhost

Moore College Library provides access to EBSCO’s Academic, History, and Religion e-book collections, but none of these offer citation tracking. See EBSCO’s Searchable Cited References FAQ and Browsing & Searching Cited References for more information.

Google Scholar

On Google Scholar, click the menu icon (top left of screen), select “Advanced search,” enter your search terms, click on the “Search” icon, and locate relevant articles in the search results. Click the “Cited by” link to retrieve a list of citing articles and books. Also create alerts for new publications.

JSTOR

Search for a particular author or work, and click “[number] citing this item” to see citing works within the JSTOR database, or click “Items citing this item” to view citing works in Google Scholar. Click here to access.

JSTOR text analyzer

A great tool for harvesting citations. Upload or drag-and-drop any document, including images. The tool analyses the text to find key terms and topics, then uses “prioritized terms” to find similar content in JSTOR. Review the search results and download relevant articles. The more text you provide, the better the results. Click here to access.

ProQuest Central

Click on the “Cited by” link in the search results to view citing articles. Click on an article title, and the right-hand column will show related items (click “show more” at the bottom of the list if necessary). Click here to access.

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Search for an author or article, and click on the “Cited by” link in the search results to view citing articles, dissertations and theses. Limited to items published 2007 to the present. Click here to access.

Scopus

Search for an article, and click on the “Cited by” link in the search results to view citing articles. If necessary, add a second search field to also search for the author’s surname. Use the Scopus Citation Overview tool to view the citation trend for a set of documents, find all publications citing a specific document or set of documents, and discover the overall impact of publications in a research area. Limited to articles published in 1996 and after. Click here to access.

Web of Science

Subscription-based access to principally science-based articles providing comprehensive citation data. For an author search, results will show all known publications by that author, and the number of times each article has been cited. For an article search, in the results click on the number that follows “Times cited.” Click here to access.

Wiley Online Library

Click on an article title in search results, and a “Cited by” followed by a number should appear beside the DOI. Click the number for a list of citing articles. Click here to access.

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